I ordered a couple of books recently. The first, which arrived yesterday is the The Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version - Second Catholic Edition. It is essentially the text of the RSV with some changes to make it more Catholic. For example, Mary is addressed as "full of grace" instead of "O Favored One" at the Annunciation. Another example is "brothers" of Jesus are translated as "brethren." And the word "who" is used of the Holy Spirit instead of "which." These are all good changes from a Catholic standpoint. This version differs from the first edition in that it has removed all archaic language and made some Old Testament changes (e.g. "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14 is now "virgin" although I haven’t found any other examples yet).

The second book, which I’m still waiting on, is the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which simplifies the larger catechism into a question and answer format. I am very excited about reading this. I hope it will make the Faith more accessible, especially to those in Catholic schools, PSR programs, and RCIA classes. Once I get it (come on amazon!), I’ll let everyone know what I think.